Many work for kids' well-being

Sept. 14, 2013 at 4:14 a.m.

It has truly been an amazing start of the school year in the Victoria ISD. Our commitment to "Every Child, Every Classroom, Every Day" allows us to move closer to becoming the exceptional school district we aspire to be. We are extremely proud to state that in VISD we are surrounded by change agents and difference makers in the lives of our students. Today, I would like to acknowledge our child nutrition, custodial and transportation departments for their outstanding service as champions for our children.

Led by Dana Bigham, our child nutrition employees attentively look after the well-being of all our students. They promote good health, good nutrition and healthy choices, which in turn facilitates a great education. Our child nutrition staff members work closely with several departments in our school district as they serve more than 12,000 meals per day and more than 2,171,600 meals per year. We are very proud of our child nutrition employees and very appreciative for their can-do attitude of excellence.

Our custodial department is led by Noel Conchola and is truly a valuable asset to the success of our school district. The work each of our custodians does in supporting our students, staff, schools, facilities and community is vitally important throughout our 612 square miles of excellence. Each day, our custodians serve as a guiding light for all those who are in need, and we are very fortunate to have such wonderful, dedicated and inspired individuals responsible for our facilities.

We are also extremely grateful to our transportation employees who are responsible for delivering our future. Led by Angie Sherman, our transportation employees cover 4,861 miles per day and more than 865,224 miles per year. As I visited with our bus drivers, I was reminded that each one of us is the driver of our own individual bus. We choose the desire, the vision and the focus toward moving our bus in the right direction. We can fuel our bus with positive energy, and we can energize our passengers. We must drive our bus with purpose, and we must love our passengers along the way. Finally, we must have fun while we are enjoying the ride.

Eleanor Roosevelt once stated: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." On behalf of the board of trustees and the entire VISD, thank you for allowing us the possibility to dream big and to have the courage to make those dreams come true.

Robert Jaklich is the superintendent for the Victoria Independent School District. Contact him at 361-788-9202 or through the VISD website at visd.com.